Reviews by MASPuros:

More User Reviews:

Poured into a snifter a deep chesnut brown with a thinner but well defined tannish colored head that settles pretty quickly leaving no lace behind.Aromas are deep wood,dark fruit,and sweet alcohol,the booze really hits as it warms,its quite appetizing though in my opinion.Cakey sweet flavors,big alcohol and dark fruit as well,the alcohol is very sweet in the finish.Its a big time sipper but thats ok it is pretty refined, but take it slow.As I drank more I noticed a bit of a green apple-like sourness in the finish more and more. (533 characters)

Appearance - This poured a nice chocolaty brown in color with little head as one could imagine.

Smell - This is rich, malty booze with little complexity. The fruits though are very diverse and more like a BSDA. The wood though is overpowering IMO and squashes the fruity bouquet.

Taste - The malts are sloppy and the booze overpowering. I think there are probably some terrific fruits in there but they are such a chore to find at this point I'm not going to try.

Mouthfeel - This is close to full-bodied. The alcohol isn't overly stinging but just is a raunchy, unnecessarily rough wild card that trumps everything else. Those BAs who know me can attest that I am a great fan of alcohol - hahaha - but this is just all wrong.

Drinkability - I guess I'm the odd man out because mostly the other reviews here are good but I thought this was horrible. It was off-balanced, way too much liquor, an unstructured malt base that already fell apart (why someone was saying we should age it I have no idea), and the "25% wood" was 24% too much. (1,040 characters)

Appearance - Average pour produced a lot of bubbles that formed to a two finger tan head that gradually fell to a thin cap. Beer is deep opaque mahogany brown. Some sticky lace spots but not a ton.

Smell - So sweet and very forward with the smell. Poured and set down an arms length away and aroma just found my nose. Dark fruits, brown sugar and molasses. A deep full breath in through the nose found some oaky and vanilla scents. Not finding the 14.5% ABV in the nose, but very pleasant.

Taste/Mouthfeel - Taste is almost exactly what the nose led on, very sweet. Malty, caramel, toffee, and alot of sweet plum and raisin. Oak in the finish along with a slight burn, but nothing compared to what I was expecting from such a big beer. Medium to full bodied, light carbonation, very pleasant with a slick thick coating left on the inside of my mouth just urging me to drink more.

Drinkability - While the feel in my mouth is urging me to continue drinking this is tough to do alone. Eventually it gets too sweet and I need a palate cleansing water before I continue. After a clean mouth its like starting the bottle all over again and pleasant, so I'm gonna go right up the middle with this one.

Overall, a great beer worth trying despite the steep price tag. If I find myself deserving a treat I will buy another. No disappointment here. (1,389 characters)

Muddy brown and very dark ambers. Small amount of visible carbonation--just a small ring of tiny bubbles near the edges of the glass. Leaves the glass oily.

Sweet aroma of melted sugars and caramels. Sticky toffee pudding along with a hint of bourbon barrel. The sweetest aroma of any of the anniversary flight beers.

The flavor follows the aroma. This is, fairly significantly, the sweetest of the Bruery anniversary flight. Melted Sugar Daddy caramel candies, some butterscotch, a bit of bourbon barrel, and just a tiny bit of chocolate muffin. Tasty.

Near full in body with low carbonation.

Very tasty, but I don't think this one has anywhere left to improve. (727 characters)

Brown pour, good tan head. Little bit of retention for it, but at this alcohol level. . .

Extremely boozy aroma. And wood. Jeez, its like you're sniffin a barrel of grain alcohol.

Taste, very warming, a hodgepodge of flavors from soaked oak, vanilla, caramel (thick), toffee. I don't get a discernable fruit presence in this one. Gonna hold onto my bottle, let it age a ways. This is one brutal beer in terms of a challenge to your palate. Its hot, its complex, its not likely to make a lot of friends. But it is appreciable on some levels, and I think it could improve with years on it, and you can definitely age this one for years and years based on my impressions. Not my favorite Bruery offering, but a unique one nonetheless. (734 characters)

Pours a dark amber-brown color with a half-finger tan head. The head recedes into a wispy layer on top leaving decent lacing.

Smells of deep caramel malts with large amounts of booze-soaked medium and dark fruits – pears and raisins mostly. Also present are slight hints of vanilla and slighter hints of earthy and somewhat spicy hops. As the beer warms soft toffee aromas waft out.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though not quite as complex. Moderately sweet dark malt flavors kick things off and are joined quickly by fruit flavors intimated by the aroma – raisins with light amounts of pears. Midway through the sip vanilla flavors smooth things out a bit, carrying through to a mildly bitter ending.

Mouthfeel is good. It’s got a nice thickness with smooth carbonation.

Drinkability is also good. I had no problems finishing my glass and could have another.

Overall the BA version of this beer was undoubtedly smoother and more complex. Still, this is a solid beer in its own right and is worth a shot. (1,068 characters)

(Served in a snifter) A- The woody dense brown body is murky with a double head of light tan. The lower head is creamy with a top head of big bubbles pushing above the glass. There is a sea of slow tiny bubbles fighting their way to the surface. S- The faint sour hint turns to fresh wood and a faint coffee hint that grows as the beer warms. The sour note is more vinous that lactos. There is a faint vanilla and leather note at the end of the tartness. T- The slight tartness finishes with a mellow caramel sweetness with some roasted malt in the background. The sweet and tart flavor lingers with a hop bite to follow. There is a woody quality that comes through in the malt and has touches of bourbon without the alcohol. M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel. There is no alcohol heat but there is a sweetness that clings in the finish. D- There is a good blend of mellow tartness and sweetness that is a bit caramelly with a very subtle depth underneath. The malt takes 2nd place to the tartness but the sweetness gets a bit to big for the rest of the flavor. (1,069 characters)

A: Pours deep woody brown with strong ruby highlights. Moderate head on the pour with little retention and only a bit of lacing.

S: Alcohol is strong but not stinging. Lots of tart fruitiness. Malts and oak.

T/M: A fair bit of alcohol, nice and warming. Lots of fruitiness with the alcohol, somewhat sweet but still a distinct tartness. Plenty of caramel and toffee malts. Some barrel notes add a nice touch. Carbonation is low and smooth. Body is nearly full.

D: 14.5% is a bit surprising even with the present alcohol. Pretty drinkable for it's size. (635 characters)

There is some definite oxidation but it is working well. Lot of that soft vanilla, sherry, pale oak oxidation with sturdy toasted toffee, caramel, brown sugar old ale. On the palate there is a lot of the soft vanilla, sherry, some oak. A lot drier than the current anny vintages.

Clear rosewood body with bright alizarin crimson highlights and a ropy malestrom of buff foam which subsides to a wasps nest of a collar and a dusty swirling surface slick.

Stewed fruit, nectarines, prunes, figs, and dried blueberries in the nose. A mildly fusel bourbon scent emerges on the tail end, with hints of caramel, cheap tobacco, wheat, and butterscotch.

Rather sweet on the palate with all the corresponding flavors to the aroma, with the addition of more sugar, a touch of vanilla, a very mild bitterness with hints of candied ginger and candied grapefruit zest, and an element of brandy from the bourbon barrel taking hold of the dark fruit notes.

Velvety, medium-thick, with low but decent carbonation. The heat is a bit much for the style, and makes certain fruit notes take on a subtle medicinal aspect (sort of like cherry flavored cough syrup).

I expect this could stand to be laid down for several years - one imagines the Bruery planning a decades long vertical of anniversary ales...though this beer seems like it was brewed more with that in mind than with creating something to be enjoyed in the present. (1,199 characters)